AN EARLIER ECLIPSE

Judy and I watched the total solar eclipse on television.

It was only supposed to be about 60 percent where we live and the day was partly cloudy so not much to see.

But seeing the light go out of the sky across the country and the excitement of people in all those locations was fun to see.

And the first place to have the thrill in North America was Mazatlan, Mexico.

That was the first place we visited in our neighbor to the south, 45 years ago in 1979.

But some time later, in 1991, we were living in San Antonio Tlayacapan, on the shore of Lake Chapala south of Guadalajara.

And on July 11th of that year the last total solar eclipse to be seen in Mexico occurred.

This is a photo of me with one of our fellow expatriates at the time, Hugh.

Following instructions, we were safely viewing the reflected eclipse in a bowl of water.

You can see how dark it is around us as the birds roosted in trees, thinking it was nighttime.

Here is our dear friend Lori, who was married to Hugh at the time.

We have our home-made safety glasses in our hands and it's a bit lighter either before or after totality.

We came back to the Estados Unidos the next year.

Hugh has passed on now and Lori lives in Seattle.

We have many memories of our years living in Mexico.

I recall our yard boy coming the day before the eclipse to tie red cloths to all of our fruit trees.

He said it was to prevent the fruit from falling during the eclipse.

We laughed and called it superstition but I had to admit, not one piece of fruit fell.